Monday, February 3, 2014

It was a pleasure to encounter Colonel Imtiaz Afridi on pages of The
Rataban Betrayal. It was also very personal for me; it was almost like bumping
into the many wonderful soldiers who are so much a part of some of my earliest
memories. I really do hope we get to see more of the Colonel.

Slightly different versions of the review are in this month’s The Hindu Literary Review — the version in the print edition is slightly shorter.

About 50 pages into The
Rataban Betrayal, I felt a little lost. I’d encountered over half-a-dozen
characters, yet it wasn’t very clear who they were and what they had to do with
the plot. It felt a bit like being in the midst of a bunch of threads floating
in the wind.And then, with great mastery, Stephen Alter started weaving those
strands in the wind into an interesting story and it all began to make sense.
Well, almost; for like all good thrillers, the book saves a twist or two for
the end. Weaving tales is, of course, what Alter does rather well. He’s the
author of 14 books, including five works of non-fiction.Much of the action in The
Rataban Betrayal is in Mussoorie and its satellite neighbourhood Landour.
The murder of an American missionary, who’s also a CIA agent, and the killing
of a couple of Indian guards on the border with Tibet stir things up in the
town. Both the Indian and US intelligence establishments are sufficiently
perturbed by these incidents to send undercover operatives to Mussoorie to
investigate. The Indian and American agents eventually join forces under the
direction of the wheelchair-bound Colonel Imtiaz Afridi. Retired army officer,
former mountaineer, strategic affairs expert and spy master, Afridi oversees
the covert investigation from his high-tech HQ — the shadowy, army-run
Himalayan Research Institute. Together, the two agents and Afridi discover that
the murders are part of a larger conspiracy with links to the Colonel’s past.Alter has lived in Mussoorie for years and his insider’s view adds
heft to the book. What also comes through is his knowledge of and deep
affection for the Garhwal Himalayas and the people who live there. The plot moves quickly, like being in a fast car with an expert
driver who knows just where he wants to go. The writing flows and is evocative
and descriptive for the most, with the occasional dash of humour. I was
especially taken by the description of the chauffer-driven, grey Ambassador
with James Bond-ish accessories in which ‘Bogart’, a Delhi-based American
spook, travels. The extent to which a work of fiction reflects reality is flexible.
As Alter writes in the ‘author’s note’, while many of the historical and
cultural references are based on reality, the narrative is not a factual
rendering of events or contextual details. Yet, two things about the plot
nagged me.First, the Himalayan Research Institute comes across as a sort of
Indian equivalent of the US National Security Agency, able to keep an
electronic eye on India’s northern borders. While it’s safe to assume that
India’s electronic intelligence expertise has blossomed in recent years, the
institute’s all-seeing capabilities seem a bit much. And second, Alter talks about how the Dalai Lama is protected by the
SPG. My understanding is that India’s Special Protection Group (SPG) only
protects the Prime Minister, former Prime Ministers and their immediate
families. Of course, these are relatively minor quibbles. More problematic is
the characterisation of the Indian and American operatives. While I understand
that both agents are primarily supposed to be intelligence analysts, I wondered
why they were chosen for field ops given the rather elementary mistakes they
made. In fact, during the denouement in the hills, the two almost muck it up.
What saves the day is Colonel Afridi’s foresight. Afridi is, in fact, the book’s high point, its real hero — wise,
decisive, loyal, hard as nails, but with his heart in the right place. He’s so
much the hero, that I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s a sequel in the works. I
know I’d love to read another Afridi adventure and so I suspect, would most
readers.